Category Archives: Wine & Food

And just in time for the Super Bowl . . . Super Bowl XLVI, that is.

The great things about this recipe are:

• It’s healthy as all get out.
• It’s so tasty you’ll completely forget how healthy it is.
• It’s not as spicy hot as it sounds (although it’s definitely not for the timid of tongue, either).
• It goes great with anything from tortilla chips to corn chips to potato chips to even pretzels.
• It’s so simple to make even a husband can do it.
• The leftover jalapeño pesto is great on a whole variety of dishes ranging from omelets to burgers (use as a topping)  and even mixed with ground beef for tacos or chili.  By all means use your imagination with the leftover pesto, because you’ll probably think up dozens of uses for it.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds fresh whole  jalapeño peppers
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. granulated or 2 tsp. fresh crushed garlic
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• ⅓ cup good extra virgin olive oil or other healthy monounsaturated oil

Step 1. Bring to boil just enough water to immerse the jalapeños.  Once the water is boiling, add the jalapeños and bring the water back to boiling.  Gently boil the jalapeños, stirring occasionally, for fifteen minutes.  Drain the jalapeños and set aside until they are cool enough to handle.

Step 2. Slice the jalapeños in half lengthwise and remove the stems.  Now, this next procedure is where you control the heat to some extent.  On most of the jalapeños, remove the seeds and the ribs to which those seeds are attached.  Keep the seeds and ribs on approximately one-third of the jalapeños, choosing in particular those jalapeños with very white, healthy-looking seeds and discarding those seeds that are dingy or brown in color.  Increasing the number of seeds and ribs retained will increase the heat; decreasing that number will help to tame it.

Step 3. Place the jalapeños, cumin, garlic, and salt into a food processor.  While pulsing, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Do no overdo the processing or you’ll destroy those beautiful white seeds and lose texture, but you do want a fairly smooth consistency.

Serve with either warm or cold with your favorite chips. Warm is particularly interesting, especially if you contrast that with a well-refrigerated California onion dip (one envelope of Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix combined with one pint of reduced-fat sour cream).  Serve these two dips side-by-side and watch eager fans alternate between the two of them.

And since this is listed under Wine & Food the next question would have to be, what kind of wine would you serve with this?  Well, first of all, this is definitely an accompaniment to beer, especially a good, fairly strong ale.  But if you would like wine with this, it’ll have to be one that helps tame the fire.  That suggests a semisweet white.  Think:  Johannisberg or German Rieslings, Chenin Blanc, or Gewürztraminer.  The cooler white wine serving temperatures supply immediate relief and the sweetness helps neutralize the capsaicin (the compound that gives peppers their “heat”) in the long term.

I mentioned in my blog on Bordeaux-Style Wines that red Bordeaux is, “Probably THE Classic French Wine.”  There is in my opinion, however, another French red wine that is at least as good, if not better.  That would be the incomparable but  not widely known Châteauneuf-du-Pape, named after a small village in the southern portion of France’s Rhone river valley region.  But whereas the Bordeaux uses as it base grape Cabernet Sauvignon, the Châteauneuf-du-Pape derives its character from the Grenache, blended with Syrah and Mourvèdre.  Remember the first letters of those three grapes, as that’ll come in handy in just a moment.  Other grapes blended with the base Grenache may include Cinsault, Cournoise, Muscardin and, to lesser degrees, Picardan, Picpoul, Roussanne, Terret Noir, and Vaccarese.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape is very full-bodied and considerably tannic in nature. Thus it benefits greatly from aging.  And because if this full-bodied, tannic nature, Châteauneuf-du-Pape pairs very well with many of the same meats as does Bordeaux, in particular beef, lamb, and game.  But unlike Bordeaux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape also takes on the spicier dishes with ease because of the greater Syrah component.  Think chili, stew, beef bourguignonne, and even many tomato-based Italian dishes including pastas.   At the other end of the spectrum, and something you definitely wouldn’t want to try routinely with Bordeaux, are pairings with tomato-based shellfish dishes and, really surprisingly, pork and chicken dishes that would normally benefit from a much lighter red such as Burgundy (Pinot Noir) or one of the fuller-bodied whites such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.  This makes Châteauneuf-du-Pape a much more versatile wine than its more famous but comparatively restrictive Bordeaux neighbor.  This is one red that allows the home chef to do some really creative pairings without too much worry of clashing.

Although Châteauneuf-du-Pape prices have been following the downward trend of other French wines in recent years, they are still not what I consider a great buy despite their versatility.  Fortunately, as with Bordeaux, you do have alternatives.  The Grenache grape thrives in warm, dry climates and as a result has been planted extensively around the world.  Notable examples include California’s San Joaquin Valley, Eastern Spain (where it’s called Garnacha), Southern Italy, and very importantly Southern Australia, particularly in the McLaren Vale, and Barossa Valley appellations.  And it is from Southern Australia where you make your best deals on a very good, reasonably priced Châteauneuf-style red.

As with Bordeaux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a registered name and thus it cannot be used in the marketing of similar Grenache-based red blends originating from beyond the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region of France.  So, Australian vineyards routinely market their version of this wine as a GSM.  Do those letters sound familiar?  They should.  I asked at the beginning of this article that you remember the first letters of the three most important grapes for this style of wine—Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre.  Armed with this knowledge and a good wine rating (I personally use Wine Spectator as I’ve found their tastes come closest to matching my own) you now have all the information you require to find a comparable wine at a fraction of the cost of the original, and Costco is a great place to find a wide selection of Australian GSMs from which to choose.

If you love red wines but haven’t tried a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, you owe it to yourself to give this style of wine a try.  You’ll be very glad you did.

Let’s turn today to one of my passions: Wine and the pairing of wine with good food.  But please don’t miss the very special “Thank You” I have posted immediately following this article.

Probably THE Classic French Wine is the Bordeaux red (yes, Virginia, there really is a white Bordeaux).  But what is a Bordeaux red?  Can you get a comparable red wine from other than the Bordeaux Region of France?  With what food should you pair a Bordeaux?

The Classic Bordeaux is a blend derived from several different grapes.  Those grapes—in order of importance to this style of wine—are first and foremost Cabernet Sauvignon followed by the blending grapes Cabernet Franc, the latest fad grape Merlot, Petit Vedot, and also-rans Malbec and Carménère.  Those last two grapes are not as common in Bordeaux as they once were, hence the “also ran” comment.  To get the best from this style of wine, a Bordeaux red should really be aged for a minimum of six month either in an oak cask or with oak chips in the wine if a more modern stainless cask is used for the aging.  The oak imparts a hint of vanilla to wines and, along with the aging process, helps to mitigate the tannins, which are the compounds during wine tasting that leave a rough feeling on your teeth and, if too prevalent, a slightly bitter aftertaste.  But tannins are a very important part of this wine, especially in how well Bordeaux pairs with certain protein-rich foods.

Bordeaux Styles come from around the world, but vintners from outside the Bordeaux Region are prohibited from using the term “Bordeaux” because of legal restrictions on the name.  In the United States the trademarked name for a Bordeaux style wine is “Meritage” (rhymes with heritage; do not try pronouncing it as if it were a French word).  Meritage is made to exacting specifications using at least two of the aforementioned grapes, but in addition to the standard Bordeaux grapes, Gros Verdot may also be used.  A Meritage classification is not easy to achieve.  The Meritage Association restricts use of the name to member vineyards, which increasingly includes foreign as well as U.S.-based vineyards.  The Meritage name is limited to a member’s best blend for a particular vintage (the year the grape was harvested) and is generally limited to no more than 25,000 cases of that blend.  By the way, to the French-adverse English, who historically hate using any French words, a Bordeaux-style red is referred to as a “Claret”.  Although English in origin, “Claret” is a term used elsewhere as well.  Indeed, the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Napa Valley makes a Coppola Claret—although not, in my opinion, a very good one based upon the last time I tried a bottle.  But whether the bottle says Bordeaux, Meritage, Claret, or even Table Red at the local dive restaurant, this style of wine can be exceptional no matter what the name.

Other Countries Making Exceptional Bordeaux-Style Wines include Chile, Argentina, the United States (particularly California), and Australia (especially the Barossa Valley appellation).  Most vineyards from these countries use Cabernet Sauvignon as the base grape and then blend regional favorites to come up with their own distinctive take on the Bordeaux style.  Chilean blends emphasize Merlot and the closely related Carménère as the secondary grapes.  For Argentina Malbec and Merlot are the main compliments to their Cabernet Sauvignon.  From Australia you can get a rather untraditional blend using peppery Shiraz (or Syrah, as it is frequently referred to elsewhere) as well as the more traditional Cabernet Franc.  And in the U.S. the complimenting grapes run the gambit from the traditional to regional favorites such as Petite Syrah (no relation to Shiraz/Syrah) and even that classic California varietal (and one of my favorites), the ever-tasty and usually very potent Zinfandel, which is closely related to Italy’s Primitivo.

Pairing Food with Bordeaux-Style Reds is pretty straight forward.  The classic pairings for this style of wine are red meats such as lamb and beef.  And, yes, that “beef” pairing means this wine goes exceptionally well with even the lowly hamburger.  That’s because the tannins react with the protein in such meats to compliment the flavor of both wine and meat alike.  This truly is a match made in Heaven.  But don’t stop at just lamb and beef.  Try dark-meat foul such as duck or even goose.  Venison also works very well with Bordeaux, as does bison (American “buffalo”).  Planning a barbeque using red meats?  The peppery flavor imparted by the Shiraz blends of Australia and the hearty and also slightly peppery Zinfandel blends from California may be just the wine you seek.  And then, believe it or not, comes dessert . . . as long as dessert is based upon a rich, dark chocolate.  True Bordeaux reds are known for this pairing, but I prefer a blend using Zinfandel, or even a good, red Zinfandel-only wine for that matter.  Also, because Bordeaux styles go well with dark chocolate, so too will they pair well with certain mole (rhymes with that other Spanish word olé) dishes from Mexico.  That’s because mole sauces—usually served on chicken or over chicken enchiladas—use dark, unsweetened chocolate.

A Very Special Thank You to Elizabeth Trudgeon Brown, of The Frugal eReader, who was so kind as to mention my mystery novel Decisions in her blog:  http://www.thefrugalereader.com/2011/01/decisions-r-doug-wicker-299.html.  That simple gesture helped to boost my sales immensely after it was posted yesterday afternoon.  Thank you, Elizabeth.